Hard Facts – HillFaith

Meet The B-17 Of The Bug World, The Bombardier Beetle

One thing you don’t want to do if you encounter a Bombardier Beetle is give it the idea that you are threat to it. Why? Because you don’t want to be sprayed by this little beast’s machine guns.

Oops, wrong Beetle. (Photo by Scott Umstattd on Unsplash)

Machine guns on a bug? That’s right, as Apologetics Press’ Eric Lyons explains in the following video, this bug resembles the famous B-17 “Flying Fortress” of WW II in having a swivel turret with double guns that fire a 212 degree chemical mixture at long distance against its enemies with tremendous accuracy.

No, I am not making this up. The bug has only two guns whereas the Fortress had, depending on the model, between 8 and 11 defensive machine guns. But, as Lyons explains, evolution cannot explain how the bug got here with such a fine defensive mechanism:

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What If The Bible Doesn’t Say What You Think It Says?

It’s the most widely read book in human history, but the Bible may well also be the most frequently mis-understood or mis-represented written work ever produced.

Lots of people think the Bible says a lot of things that on closer inspection turn to out to be merely aphorisms or maxims. Perfect example is the cliche that “God helps those who help themselves.” No, that’s not in the Bible.

Stand to Reason’s Tim Barnett took up this issue recently and the result is a thought-provoking five-minute analysis of the crucial importance of actually knowing what the Bible says, as opposed to what its critics claim it says:

Here’s One Photo That Shows Why Partial-Birth Abortion Is Wrong

Two things have long puzzled me about the abortion issue. First, everybody in the political debate on the issue knows, whether they publicly admit it or not, that unborn human beings are always the victims, whether they are killed 12 weeks into a pregnancy, 25 weeks or one minute before birth.

Second, if no human being has the right to enslave another human being, why does any human being have the right to destroy another human being at any point prior to its birth?

Cross-examined.org’s Dr. Frank Turek — co-author with Dr. Norm Geisler of “I Don’t Have Enough Faith To Be An Atheist” —addressed some key aspects of the abortion issue in this recent video, with one photograph that ought to remove any remaining doubt in anybody’s mind that it is human beings who are being slaughtered in the name of convenience:

HARD FACTS: Humans Have Killed 33 Unborn Babies For Every One Covid-19 Death

It is said “a picture can be worth a thousand words,” but it can often be far more true (and hugely significant for those working on Capitol Hill) that a few numbers can save millions of lives.

Consider the following worldwide data from Worldometer, from Jan. 1, 2020 to Oct. 12, 2020, as of 10:36 GMT:

Covid-19 Deaths Worldwide: 1,081,944

HIV/AIDS Deaths: 1,313,556

Alcohol Deaths: 1,954,324

Smoking Deaths: 3,906,180

Cancer Deaths: 6,417,459

DEATHS BY ABORTION: 33,254,430

Covid-19 kills primarily among the elderly and those with underlyng health conditions that compromise their immune systems. There are still noticeably more HIV/AIDS deaths worldwide than Covid-19 deaths, and nearly twice as many alcohol-related deaths.

And look at the figures for deaths by smoking and cancer — the former has taken the lives of nearly four times as many people as Covid-19, and the latter more than six times!

But none of those begin to compare with the number of deaths caused by abortion, the willful destroying of innocent life in the womb. To date this year alone, we human beings around the world have killed 33 unborn boys and girls for every one person who has succumbed to Covid-19.

Psalm 139:15-16 tells us that God formed each of us while we were yet in our mother’s womb. And more than 33 million times this year alone, we have told God to step aside because we are going to kill another one of His creatures.

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WHAT IF ALL OF THE BIBLE IS AS ACCURATE AS THESE PROPHECIES?

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WHAT IF: All Bible Prophecies Are Just As Accurate As These Five?

Your friend tells you a check for $1 million made out in your name will appear in your snail-mail box next Wednesday morning. Sure enough, next Wednesday morning rolls around and there’s the check.

That ought to get your attention, right? But maybe your friend had some way of knowing in advance that for whatever reason somebody would so favor you. Besides, it’s just one correct prophecy, so not necessarily evidence of your friend having an amazing prophetic skill.

But then over the course of the next four weeks the same friend delivers four more prophecies about you and your life —some good, some not so good — that prove to be dead-on accurate. You’re going to pay close attention whenever that friend speaks!

Would you do the same with a book containing five accurate prophecies about hugely important events in world history? What if it’s not just five, but hundreds of accurate prophecies made over more than 2,000 years? Check it out:

FAMILY: At-Risk Kids Get Life-Changing Help At Christian Schools, Study Finds

Most conversations, especially on Capitol Hill, about public versus private education focus, unfortunately, on the relative merits of the two systems in terms of test scores and job preparation, according to a new joint study by the Institute for Family Studies (IFS) and the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).

Not that doing well on the SAT or getting a leg-up on the latest technologies and procedures in the industry of your choice are bad things, but the authors of the study point to other factors that ought to be considered in the comparison because they are at least important, if not more so, in assessing the comparative societal value of public and private schools.

“For instance, there is the opportunity to be formed into a woman or man of good character, a good citizen, or a good partner and parent. The effects of schooling extend to these other important domains of life,” the study said. Continue reading “FAMILY: At-Risk Kids Get Life-Changing Help At Christian Schools, Study Finds”

What Kind Of Syrup Should Go On Your ‘Mantle Bottom Pancakes?’

If the headline above makes no sense at all, that’s almost certainly because most folks have never heard of Mantle Bottom Pancakes since they have nothing to do with breakfast. They have everything to do, however, with places like the Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific Ocean.

Credit: Naeblys. National Science Foundation (NSF).

The Mantle is what’s below the surface of the Earth on which we live and, as Reasons to Believe’s Hugh Ross points out, it makes up more than 80 percent of the total volume of the Earth. And, he points out, it produces tremendous benefits for us on the surface in at least five ways.

And what does this have to do with working on Capitol Hill, or believing in God? Science is a major issue in countless ways in Congress. The more is known, the better life can be. Or to put it another way, the more we know about science, the more clear it becomes that Creation happened by design, not by chance.

As an astronomer, Ross is usually looking up and away from Earth, but in this fascinating article, he’s looking downward, and the results just may give you a new insight into the world we inhabit and why.

You Only Get One Shot To See ‘Against The Tide’

“Against the Tide: Finding God in an Age of Science” is a new documentary from Pensmore Films featuring Oxford Mathematics Professor Emeritus John Lennox and actor Kevin Sorbo, to be aired in more than 600 theaters across the country on November 19.

John Lennox, Professor Emeritus in Mathematics and the Philosophy of Science.

Lennox has debated the world’s most well-known atheists around the world — including Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Peter Singer, and Michael Shermer — and is the author of God’s Undertaker: Has Science Buried God?, Gunning for God, and God and Stephen Hawking: Whose Design Is it Anyway.

Kevin Sorbo is known to millions of Hollywood fans around the world as the lead character in one of the most successful syndicated TV series ever, “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys,” as well as “Andromeda” and “Supergirl.”

More recently, Sorbo has become known for his faith as a follower of Jesus Christ. “I am frequently berated by Hollywood compatriots for my Christian faith,” Sorbo said. “This seemed a great opportunity to learn how to respond from a master in turning the atheist manifesto on its head. Furthermore, I get to appear as ‘myself!’” Not every successful actor gets to appear on screen as themselves.

For more information on tickets and where the film is being shown, go here.

Here’s Why The Case For God Isn’t A ‘God Of The Gaps’ Explanation

There is a a frequently heard claim by prominent atheist advocates like Sam Harris that Christians who argue for the existence of God are merely using God to explain the gaps in human knowledge about how the universe came to be, the origin of life, and other mysteries.

“Hey, we don’t understand how the world was created, or even if it was or has just always been, so that must be explained by a god,” is the alleged process atheists accuse Christians of following.

If you are a congressional aide who works on either of the Senate or House committees that deal with science and technology, odds are good you’ve heard this argument articulated more than once.

But, guess what, the same reasoning can be applied to “science of the gaps,” according to J. Warner Wallace of Cold-Case Christianity and NBC “Dateline” cold-case detective renown. “To deny personhood of the First Cause is science of the gaps,” he argues in the following video:

Did Jesus Really Claim To Be The Eternal God Of The Universe?

You’re strolling down a hallway in the Dirksen building when suddenly you are being accosted by a legislative counsel for your home state’s other senator.

You’ve not previously met the guy and, frankly, you’ve heard some whispers among colleagues that he’s, shall we say, a little odd. But you had no idea to expect what the guy proceeds to tell you now:

“Yes, I am the God who created and sustains the entire universe, including you. I know all things from beginning to end and nothing ever happens that surprises me because I see it before it happens. Oh, one more thing — accepting me as your personal savior is the only way you or any other human being can receive eternal life in Heaven.”

That scenario may be an imaginary one, but take yourself back 2,000 years ago in what is now Israel and odds are excellent you would hear about a Jesus character making such claims. You might even meet him on a road. Would you believe His claims about Himself?

FAITHFUL DISOBEDIENCE: Here’s The Absurdly Detailed California Covid Orders to Prevent Churches From Meeting To Worship Indoors

California authorities are clearly determined to make an example of Pastor John MacArthur and Grace Community Church (GCC) in Los Angeles County in retaliation for defying the state’s ban on indoor worship meetings.

The ban has been challenged by other California congregations, but MacArthur is an internationally known evangelical pastor, book author and opinion molder. He and GCC are represented in court by Jenna Ellis and the Thomas More Society. Go here, here and here for previous HillFaith posts on GCC.

Yesterday, Sunday, September 13, MacArthur and GBC defied a court order specifically banning the congregation from meeting indoors. During the service, MacArthur described the specific demands California seeks to impose on all churches in the state.

As MacArthur goes through these demands, it should be obvious to all reasonable persons that California officials are attempting bureaucratic strangulation by regulation of the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious freedom and assembly.

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These Ancient Secular Historians Explode The Recurring Myth That Jesus Never Actually Existed

There is a claim that comes and goes in public forums among critics of Jesus that contends there never was an actual person by that name who did the miracles described in the Gospel and who ultimately was crucified on a Roman cross, buried in a grave donated by a rich man and resurrected three days later.

With the advent of social media, the “Jesus never lived” claim is frequently recirculated on the Internet, thanks in great part to evangelism efforts inspired by high-profile atheists like the late Physicist Stephen Hawking and astrophysicist/cable TV celebrity Neil deGrasse Tyson.

The reality is, as the following vimeo from David Couchman’s series on “Jesus Myths” makes abundantly clear, ancient secular historians who are readily accepted as legitimate sources for other persons and events in the world of the Roman Empire also attest to the life and death of Jesus:

Once I Was Among The ‘Pro-Choice’ (Unthinkingly). But Then I Became Firmly Pro-Life. This Is Why

It comes back to me at the most unexpected moments, as it did a couple of days ago, but always as an uncomfortable recollection from a brief, regretted moment in a college classroom long past.

“It” is the memory of something I said as a sophomore or junior at Oklahoma State University in 1970 or 1971 (yes, I am that old!). Odd how certain scenes in your life stay with you, isn’t it? I have since come to believe that such memories are not coincidental.

Anyway, it was during an Economics 101 course and somehow the class discussion had turned to the issue of abortion. A couple of my fellow students were making the case that life begins at conception and is sacred, therefore abortion is wrong.

It’s what I said in response to them that haunts me to this day: “But it’s just a glob of cells.” So, it was understood, it’s ok to “kill” it because it’s not yet a baby, a living human being. That phrase, “a glob of cells,” has stuck with me, not unlike those “damned spots” that plagued Lady MacBeth. Continue reading “Once I Was Among The ‘Pro-Choice’ (Unthinkingly). But Then I Became Firmly Pro-Life. This Is Why”

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY: When Someone Claims The Crusades Prove Christianity Is Just As Violent As Islam

Listen to a conversation on the Hill among congressional staffers about the Crusades and it’s a near certainty that somebody will claim these Middle Ages wars between Christians and Muslims prove Christianity is just as violent as Islam.

There is some truth behind that statement, but it’s not what you might be expecting. What it shows is that Original Sin is a problem every human being who has ever lived (except one, Jesus Christ!) must come to grips with one way or the other.

The Colson Center’s Brook McIntyre lays out the historical facts on three points that make clear the inaccuracy of the argument about what the Crusades “prove” about Christianity:

What If ‘That Hideous Strength’ — The Magician’s Twin — Has Already Arrived Among Us?

Daniel Bell, the great American sociologist of the 20th century, once declared that “the essence of modernity is that nothing is sacred.” Dostoevsky put it a little more precisely: “If God is dead, then everything is permitted.”

Just how right the sociologist and novelist were was foreshadowed by a brilliant and prophetic novel written in 1945 ago by C.S. Lewis that, unfortunately, never achieved the same level of popularity as the author’s monumental apologetical work, “Mere Christianity.”

Lewis’ obscure masterpiece is “That Hideous Strength,” a fictional vision of what happens when science is abused: Think racism, eugenics, and the devaluation of human life. Yes, it is a close relative to his “The Abolition of Man.”

This Discovery Science video reminds us that Lewis was not merely a supremely imaginative writer and deeply perceptive thinker, he was also gifted with a prophetic vision of where Western civilization appeared to be headed (which, by the way, my Capitol Hill friends, is where we are rapidly arriving today, it seems):